


Evergreen, Ever Sun, Ever Moon

by coslyons



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 15:06:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4569105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coslyons/pseuds/coslyons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a beautiful night in Henrietta. The stars are bright, the weather is cool, and magic is seen.</p><p>So, Adam and Ronan go stargazing at the Barns.</p><p>Magic and majesty are overwhelming forces, when the grand scheme of things is the universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Evergreen, Ever Sun, Ever Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from [Sonnet LXXXI](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/729424-sonnet-lxxxi-and-now-you-re-mine-rest-with-your-dream) by Pablo Neruda. 
> 
> For a visual reference use [Starry Night Over the Rhone](http://www.vggallery.com/painting/p_0474.htm).
> 
> I'm on tumblr at asexualrichardgansey

They were all gathered around the map on the floor: dusty blonde hair touching tousled brown hair touching spiky black hair touching buzzcut. Ronan could not seem to make sense of the images presented before him. Then again, the map was upside down in front of him and printed in another language.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to sort this out today.”

That was Gansey. He looked frazzled, which was to say he only looked slightly less put together than usual.

“I’m going to go drop off Jane. You guys feel free to do whatever.”

Ronan got the distinct impression that Gansey’s idea of "whatever" should involve several hours where Ronan wasn’t at Monmouth to bother Gansey.

That was fine by him. The night promised to be beautiful. Why not go enjoy it?

But would Adam…?

“Can we go to the Barns tonight, Ronan?” Adam’s voice cut into his train of thought.

As Ronan looked up Adam smiled at him, his troubled expression from earlier melting into something softer. Something about the expression made Ronan smile back.

“Yeah. I was just thinking about doing something like that.”

“Great. Let’s go ahead and go then.”

 

The car ride was filled with idle chatter about nothing really important: school, books, their friends. If there was any added weight to the moment, it was not more than the two of them could bear.

 

Night was just falling as they pulled up the long driveway to Ronan’s childhood home.

The evening was cool in a way that August nights rarely were in Virginia. Apparently, the weather failed to deliver the massive storm that the cold front had promised and instead had given them this mild twilight.

Ronan wasn’t about to complain about perfect weather. He intended to enjoy every second of it he possibly could.

“Feel like going for a walk, Adam?”

“That sounds great.”

Ronan led them to a trail that wound its way through the trees and up on the hills of his property. It was a good night for it. The moon was not at its fullest, but the half of it visible gave them enough of a lantern that neither of them needed a flashlight to see by.

As they began to walk, Ronan somehow imagined that he could feel magic in the pockets of cold air that collected in the low places of the path.

The night air around them seemed to swirl and twist like a Van Gogh painting, with fireflies caught in the eddies of the evening like stars. The moon glowed off of a nearby pond, the water so still it was practically a polished mirror.

As Ronan and Adam walked, the backs of their hands knocked together every so often. Adam eventually turned his hand just enough to snag Ronan’s. Their fingers intertwined. Adam stroked Ronan’s finger with his thumb while looking at Ronan through his eyelashes.

The trees rustling over their heads filled the night with reminders to _shhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhh_. As they climbed farther and farther up the hill, the trees began to thin. Ronan caught glimpses of a sky spangled in stars through the breaks in the foliage above him.

Finally, they reached the end of the trees, the night sky above them spreading out like a blue-black tapestry embroidered with precious stones. The world was holding its breath and so was Ronan. There was a majesty about the sight.

Adam shifted his grip on Ronan hands. (There was a majesty about Adam too.)

Adam broke the comfortable silence they found themselves in. “Do you know anything about constellations?”

“Can’t say I do.” Ronan turned his head to look at Adam with a smile playing at his lips, but Adam’s head was craned back as he stared at the stars.

He turned to look at Ronan now, and Ronan didn’t even bother to pretend he wasn’t staring.

Adam asked, “Want me to show you?”

“Yeah, sounds great.”

Adam began to sit down, and tugged on Ronan’s arm to indicate that Ronan should sit next to him.

Ronan obliged. He left a few inches of space between them; he didn’t want to invade Adam’s space.

Adam released Ronan’s hand and laid all the way down. “Oh! You can see much better if you lie down like this!”

Much slower than Adam’s decisive flop into the soft grass, Ronan leaned back until his head was resting on the earth beneath him.

The grass was sweet and summery around Ronan’s head. The backs of his arms itches slightly whenever he shifted on the ground.

Adam began to fidget next to him, and all of a sudden he was right next to Ronan. He lifted an arm to point at some of the constellations and tell their stories. (Scorpius, Hercules, and Draco never seemed so interesting until Adam was talking about them)

Ronan turned to look at Adam with what he knew was a hopelessly fond look in his eyes.

When Adam glanced over, too quickly for Ronan to guard his expression, Adam’s face softened too.

He put down his arm from where he had been pointing and shifted up on one elbow, tongue darting over his lips. “Can I kiss you?”

Ronan nodded softly, heart thudding from excitement in his chest.

Adam leaned over Ronan, and placed his hand gently on the side of Ronan’s face. His eyes were half-lidded as he drifted towards Ronan even more.

Their lips brushed gently. Adam’s lips were slightly damp from where he had licked them, and only the tiniest bit chapped. The kiss was as tender as it was brief.

The world felt as though something vital had snapped into place. (Maybe it wasn’t the world that felt that way, though. Maybe it was just Ronan.)

Adam moved away from Ronan just a little bit. His nose brushed over Ronan’s cheekbones. Ronan felt his face split into a massive smile, and he let out a breathy laugh. Adam searched Ronan’s eyes briefly before the skin around his own eyes crinkled in silent mirth.

Adam laid flat back out the ground and intertwined their fingers once more. Sleep weighed on the corners of Ronan’s eyes. The warmth of Adam beside him and the blanket of stars above him proved to be a siren’s call to sleep. As Adam raised their joined hands up to his mouth to kiss the back of Ronan’s hand, Ronan couldn’t help but to drift off into peaceful sleep.

  
  


[When Ronan woke up the next morning in his bed a Monmouth, he was briefly shocked not to have woken up at the Barns. Briefly shocked not to find Adam there.

His lips still tingled from the memory of the non-existent kiss, and his palm and fingers twitched from the ghost of a hand.

 _Apparently_ , he thought in a mixture of relief and disappointment, _even the Greywaren can have vivid dreams that don’t involve magic._ ]

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually based on a really vivid dream I had, and let me tell you: if Ronan dreams about Adam frequently and vividly, I don't know how he stands it. I was thrown off-kilter for a solid week after my version of this dream.  
> Falling in love with an imaginary stranger is one thing. Falling in love with one of your best friends is something else entirely.
> 
> (Also, I think I'm still doing that thing where I turn the moments in life that bother me into fanfiction. Oops)


End file.
